Q&A: How To Get Healthy Hair

Does your hair lack the sleekness and sheen needed to make it totally enticing?

Are you making an all too common mistake when shampooing that doesn’t help the shine?

Do your strands break off faster than you can nurture them when growing your hair out?

How often do you see steam rising from your hair when hot tooling?

If any of this sounds familiar you may want to explore …

Okay so as you may have guessed this burning question involves tips for how to get healthy hair.

It isn’t surprising this might just be “must know” info given the abuse that some you know heap on their mane.

From hot styling tools, to endless color treatments, to simply too much time spent exposed to the sun – it all adds up. And takes a toll. Making it hard to have shimming locks that are highly light reflective, right?

It also makes you wonder … Why is it that only after abusing our locks seemingly forever do we seek out guidance for getting hair that not only looks healthier but actually is?

This is especially troublesome when it’s easier to maintain our tresses when they are glossy and vibrant than it is to restore them to health after they have become dull and frazzled.

Seems for some healthy hair is a little like going to heaven. Everyone wants to go there. It’s just that few want to do what it takes to actually get there. Because who doesn’t know by now that using continuous heat, getting our hair colored right after being permed, or spending too much time poolside without first protecting our hair isn’t good for it?

Plus the magazines we read are full of ideas for avoiding tress distress.

And I’d imagine your stylist may have shared a tip or two along the way too.

Yet there you sit. Coping with the problem of nonstop breakage, frizz and split ends galore that’s only getting worse by the minute.

Okay so things are bad but how bad are they really? Sure, exactly how can you figure out how bad off your locks are?

Well, I saw this in a magazine somewhere. Cosmo? Glamour? Marie Claire? I’m not sure. But the idea was to see how far your wet hair stretches. If it’s healthy it can stretch as much as a half inch or so without breaking. While damaged hair? That snaps right away.

How would your hair fair if tested like that?

What would it tell you if you tried it and it failed?

Would you know what to do about it?

Enough with the problems already. Let’s get onto some proven ideas, tips and solutions that reveal how to maintain the health of those tresses of yours. Or that may revive hair gone wild due to over styling, coloring, or processing.

Heat Shields Up

Okay. That was dorky. Yet here all along you may have thought a heat shield was something to do with the Space Shuttle. But it also has a lot to do with healthy hair. Because it’s no secret over-enthusiastic hot tool hair styling only makes parched damaged hair worse. Not to mention using hot styling tools on damp hair is a major no-no. Yet it happens every day.

Remember that if you see even a hint of steam rising from your mane when hot tooling, and it’s not from your heat protectant, a serious hair catastrophe is unfolding right before you very eyes on YOUR head. As that steam suggests the moisture inside your strands is nearing the boiling point.

Not something you want.

Not something anyone wants.

It can rupture and weaken your fragile hair shafts leading to tons of breakage.

Never touch your hair with any curling or flat iron if your mane isn’t totally and completely dry.

Always keep your flat iron moving since it takes less than 15 seconds to torch tresses.

Never use a metal brush when blow drying as that can conduct enough heat to fry hair.

Lastly coddle your locks with one final arctic blast of cold air to lock down the cuticles on each delicate strand.. This will seal in the moisture and give your hair a glossy gleam.

Then while on the subject of hot styling tools here’s something few do. Clean them weekly using alcohol to rid them of any nasty product buildup that can sear your hair resulting in unwanted brittleness.

The Problem of Overwashing

Well guess what? Washing your hair too frequently is one of the most common mistakes too many of us make in that misguided quest for squeaky clean-ness.

So maybe it’s time to rethink this and re-work your shampooing routine. Because over-washing can lead to dry hair not to mention hasten color fade. It also robs your locks of those shine-enhancing essential oils that keep things well lubed.

Remember to wash your hair the right way. That is – spread the shampoo on your palms, work it through the hair around the crown of your head, and gently massage your scalp with your fingertips. Too many go at the massaging part with too much vigor. This can roughen up your cuticles and rob your hair of shine.

Forget sudsing up every day. Too hard on your hair. See if you can’t get by with dry shampoo if you have oiliness to address on day two while focusing some conditioner on your ends.

Remember to use gentler, sulfate free suds at least some of the time. May not lather up great but should still cleanse just fine. Look for those that have words like “moisturizing” or “color protecting” on the label. Some will tout their sulfate freeness there too. I know. Who knew?

Deadly Dullness

Is your hair deadly dull?

Does it display less than zero shine?

Is it just plain blah having lost most of its luster?

Do you know the most common cause for all this dingy drabness? Surprisingly according to some styling pros it might just be leftover shampoo residue. For that reason you want to be sure to rinse your hair well to get all the suds out and to let the shine in.

Next on the list of culprits behind lifeless looking hair is a roughed up cuticle. When that happens your hair is less radiant. Less light reflective. Smoothing those cuticles with a deep conditioner can help. Hot oil treatments are good too to make it glossy.

Overexposed

Sun-faded strands are a real style spoiler alright. Yet UV rays are both unrelenting and merciless. They’ll cruelly suck the life out of your locks faster than any zombie on that Walking Dead show that your boyfriend can’t seem to ever get enough of.

Protecting your hair from the sun is even more important if it’s color treated. Sun exposure can be death of color.

Hydration is the key to fixing any damage already done. It can restore the elasticity your strands have been robbed of by Mr. Sunny.

But prevention is what you want if you want to keep the sun from doing a number on your mane.

Conditioning before heading out to the beach is a smart move.

Cute hats can create a barrier between your mane and the sun. If you hair is longer doing a quick French braid that peeks out from under a pretty scarf can have you back to sexy in no time – yet safeguard you color from the sun.

Using products with sunscreen can keep UV rays off your hair. Spray-on UV shields are good too.

And don’t let chlorinated pool water sun dry in your hair.

Remember the shade you save may be your own.

Split ends

Have your tattered ends seen more splits that a harried couples therapist in Hollywood?

Yet don’t fall for this. Don’t get sucked into believing the reparative powers many products claim to possess. Not true. Best some do is grease up your ends, and YUCK, who wants that?

To be honest the only thing that will help is time with the scissors. That’s right you have to cut your losses.

Then in the future, if splits are a problem, you’ll want to use a light weight leave in conditioner to strengthen those anemic ends. And no fair using hot styling tools without applying a heat protectant first.

Then given the vulnerability of the tips of your hair due to age and accumulated exposure to all things bad for hair, if nothing else get a dusting every 8-10 weeks. That’s where a tiny bit of hair is cut off to get rid of the most damaged parts.

Breakage

Trying to grow your hair out but its breaking off faster than you can grow it? Frustrating, isn’t it?

Here’s a thing or two that might be sabotaging your grow out strategy.

Are you blotting your hair dry or frantically rubbing it for all you’re worth? Even wrapping it in a towel and rubbing it isn’t as harmless as it might seem. The friction created weakens the strands making way for increased risk of breakage.

One word. Microfiber. Better than terrycloth and easier on your locks.

How do you treat wet hair? Are you tugging it, mauling it, mistreating it with a fine comb or what? None of those things leads to healthy hair. Wet hair is vulnerable hair. Might be a good time to point out that the water in your shower swells the hair shaft. You want to go easy on it. Otherwise it can snap off on you.

Has the ponytail become your everyday look? If so are you pulling your hair back in the same place all the time. That’s not helping your growing ambitions as the elastics may be rubbing your hair raw almost. Which is why pony variety is the key here.

Blow drying again is where a little heat protectant can do a lot of good.

If you want to bulk up your mane, hot oil treatments are the way to do it. You will strengthen the strands and restore that mirror-like finish you like so much.

A Dove Research survey from a couple years back found we spend about half an hour a day doing things that put our hair at risk. So if you want to sum up how to get healthy hair in one sentence it might be – you’d be smart to treat your hair like a fine washable rather than indestructible denim.

Your Hair Is What You Eat

You just knew this one was coming. Most of us do not eat with our locks in mind. Web MD offers a nifty list of the Top 10 foods for healthy hair. Not exactly a diet, so to speak. But still, since I couldn’t say it better, I’ll just link to it. Only check it out if you want a gorgeous, salon diva mane. Love your blueberries, not those vitamins you may be taking to help your hair.

Here’s Some Proven Tips On How To Have Healthy Hair

Terrific’s Takes:

In order to grow your hair long it has to be healthy, right? So it just made sense that this video would go good with anything about healthy hair. It is full of tips and you can see how great her hair looks. So what she’s doing must be working. And it could work for you too.

How To Wash Hair The first step is how and how often you wash your hair. Washing your hair too often will dry your hair out so that’s not the way to get healthy hair. If you dry it out, in response your scalp will produce more oil. Solution? Don’t wash it as often. She’s lucky. She can go two to three days, or longer between washings. Sometimes her long locks just gets a warm water rinse after a bit of a scalp massage which helps distribute the oil from the scalp. Moisturizing the strands their entire length.

Shampoo of Choice Then it’s what shampoo you use. The shampoo of choice is one from TRESemme – Gentle Cleansing that cleans without drying your hair out. That link will take you to see how others feel about it too.

Condition with Pantene Beautiful Lengths Of course you have to condition. One person on Amazon said that the Pantene product mentioned reminded her of the conditioner that comes in coloring kits. High praise. Might be worth trying if you want to hydrate your hair and get wonderful results.

Blow Drying Smart Her trick? Never blow dry from wet to completely dry. She alternates drying with hot air for 30 seconds and then cool air for 30 seconds so as to avoid overheating her long locks. The idea is to keep your hair from overheating.

Heat Protectant Always use heat protectant if using hot styling tools. Here the popular Tresemme Heat Tamer Spray which can help your hair dry a lot softer is the protecting spray used.

Planning Ahead Minimize the amount of heat you put on your hair at any one time. So if you know you’re going to be curling your hair Saturday, wash and dry it Friday. That way it’s not getting an overdose of damaging heat on any day.

Anti-Friz Serum To get shiner hair she uses a anti frizz serum. And as with other the products these are used with a purpose.

Ceramically Speaking Every hot styling tool used is ceramic to minimize the potential for heat damage.

The Importance of Being Trimmed Unlike some who subscribe to the rule that frequent trims leads to healthy hair, she doesn’t. Not that she doesn’t want to it’s just that she doesn’t make the time for it. Besides if you have layers you’ve got more latitude on trims. In other words you can go longer between trims because your hair will tend to grow unevenly. So with layers who can tell?

Bottom Line: To get healthy hair you must be gentle with it. I’m not saying you have to sacrifice blowouts or coloring or time at the beach in order to have flawless, smoking hot hair. It’s more all in how you care for it and if you take the time to care for it properly. That way you’ll have ‘notice me’ hair that’s alive with body. That just looks alluring, sexier and is easier to manage too.

Related posts:

About Tori

Tori is a recovering shoe addict and aspiring beach bum with a devotion to all things chocolate. Her goal is to make TerrificTresses your online destination for all things hair. Whether it’s ideas to keep things stylish and chic or answers to nagging hair care problems, you’ll find it here. You might look at as your irregular dose of hair care inspiration. Oh and you can find me on GooglePlus too.